I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
The pain radiated throughout my whole body, sending me into frantic, shallow breaths.
I shook the leg, trying to alleviate some pressure, but she held it down with the dagger. The wound bled all over her, and she used droplets to draw the shape of a dagger on her forearm.
She then giggled and admired her work. ‘So weak. So unprepared.’ The woman relished in my agony as she twisted the blade anti-clockwise and more vivid red blood rushed out.
Everything went dark.
I didn’t know whether an hour had passed or if I remained passed out for days. A punch in the face woke me, splitting my lip, filling my mouth with copper-tasting fluid.
I swallowed, allowing it to coat my dry tongue.
‘Wakey, wakey,’ she sang cheerfully. ‘What is so special about you? Tell me and I’ll make it quick.’
One of my eyes wouldn’t open; the other stung like she’d rubbed salt in it. I couldn’t see well, but from what I could make out through the blinding light, she wanted to see my pain.
That woman found pleasure in causing it.
Trying to shift in my seat, to relieve the pressure from my hurting buttocks, I groaned loudly as I realised I could no longer feel my hands and half of my forearms.
My body was giving up. Somewhere around my kidneys, a dull pulling sensation spread.
I needed to escape.
A kick to my ankle jolted me out of my futile plans. Pain shot through my injured leg, tearing fresh drops of blood from the crusted stab wound. It looked infected, the burgundy scab ringed with yellowish crust that itched relentlessly. The urge to scratch was almost worse than thepain itself.
The thought of whether I would survive this made sweat bead across my skin. Shivers skittered down my spine as I tried to anticipate what the sadist might do next.
A hint of a smile tugged at her lips. Whatever she saw in me, she was enjoying it.
She yanked my head up by my hair and leaned in close to my face. ‘You don’t look much like your mother. Genes are a funny thing.’
Pressing her nose into the crook of my neck, she inhaled deeply, dragging a sharp nail along my collarbone. ‘You’re a peculiar thing… a little bit of this, a little of that. Such a little freak. How did something like you even come to exist, hmm?’
She stilled her finger over my pulse point, waiting for an answer. I stayed silent, focusing on steadying my wheezing breaths.
‘Not very chatty today? What a shame.’
Her hand released me, and my chin dropped to my chest, knocking the breath from my lungs.
I struggled to recover as she turned away, toying with dark liquids, mixing, swirling, and letting them slosh against the glass.
Was it poison?
She was going to poison me.
The moment my lungs calmed, she tilted my head and pried my lips open, emptying the vial in my mouth. I couldn’t force it out.
Everything went blank once more. A growing abyss pulled me under, eerily resembling sleep, but it couldn’t be. Ever since she dragged me here, I hadn’t dreamed.
Strong winds carried me across black clouds that cushioned my broken body and shielded it from the pouring rain.
Dirt washed off my skin, soaking into the clouds below, staining them with blood that slowly altered their hue. The more they absorbed, the deeper crimson they became untilthey began to glow, a blinding light reaching toward me, demanding more.
They kept trying to drag me down, while the black clouds clung to me, holding me in place.
